Bruce Wolpe
It started with an email whispering campaign about Barack Obama's church, his pastor, that he was Muslim, that he was sworn in as a senator with a Koran and not a Bible, writes Bruce Wolpe.

John Broder and Leslie Wayne in Chicago
JAMES JOHNSON, the consummate Washington insider who Barack Obama tapped to head his vice-presidential search, has resigned abruptly to try to silence a growing furore over his business activities.

THE Democratic Party will be watching the polls closely over the coming week to judge whether Hillary Clinton's unequivocal endorsement of her victorious rival, Barack Obama, has soothed the tensions between the two camps.

Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney in Bristol, Virginia
BARACK OBAMA has moved forcefully into the US presidential election, placing his stamp on the Democratic Party apparatus and holding a private meeting with Hillary Clinton in an effort to unify Democrats.

Maeve Reston in Kenner, Louisiana
AFTER months of ceding the spotlight to the Democratic Party presidential candidates, John McCain has declared a two-man race and wasted no time in courting supporters of Hillary Clinton.

HILLARY CLINTON will suspend her campaign to become the Democratic presidential nominee and endorse her rival, Senator Barack Obama, tomorrow, after senior members of the Democratic Party urged her to do so to allow the party to heal.

THE former president Bill Clinton has upped the ante in the final days of his wife's primary race, saying Hillary Clinton has been treated disrespectfully and warning the Democratic Party that it has less chance of winning if she is not the nominee.

Maeve Reston and Stuart Silverstein in Stockton, California
THE Republican presidential nominee John McCain has broken with two controversial televangelists whose endorsements he once trumpeted to win support from religious conservatives.

Anne Davies
DECLARING the Democratic nomination within his grasp, Barack Obama has passed an important milestone in his latest showdown with Hillary Clinton: winning the majority of delegates available through the primaries.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg in Jerusalem
THE US President, George Bush, has used a speech to the Israeli parliament to liken those who would negotiate with "terrorists and radicals" to Nazi appeasers - a remark widely seen as an attack on Barack Obama, who has advocated greater engagement with countries such as Iran and Syria.